MEDICINE HAT, AB – Bicycling continues to be a popular pastime, just like it was last year.
And the industry has not been able to catch up.
Due to demand and lack of parts, there is a bike shortage.
And local shops are feeling the pinch.
“Last year with the bike boom happening, tons of people were buying bikes, everyone was out riding, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a stream of bicycles everywhere,” CyclePath General Manager Cole Watson told Chat News.
He says inventory got more or less cleaned out from international suppliers in China and Japan.
Warehouses are trying to fill up again but production has also been pushed back.
And the local shop is feeling the ripple-effect from last year.
Watson says people are calling from Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and even B.C looking for bikes because they can’t find any.
He says the big boom is in electric bikes right now. They are also short on mountain bikes and kids’ bikes.
He says CyclePath is fortunate to have a good selection right now, but it is a struggle.
“Usually we’re used to having big semis pull up and empty tons of bikes. We’re not seeing that so anymore. Sometimes we might see 20-25 bikes show up at once which is a lot these days as opposed to 50-100 at a time. So it is definitely a bit strange and a lot of those bikes that are showing up are spoken for by customers already who are trying to get ahead of the curve a little bit.”
Watson says the 24-inch wheel kids bikes are probably the hardest bike to get your hands on right now.
“In Medicine Hat, biking is getting more and more popular every day it seems. It’s wild how many more trails we’re seeing in Elkwater and Redcliff, it’s amazing. So that all kind of came together at the same time too, to have quite a large demand in bikes,” Watson added.
